Snippets of Us (Itaewon Class)

Fire Play

One year into DanBam. They are going to be open all night for Halloween and the original five will be personally inspecting their first pub. IC is already building itself into an empire with the investment received, so the balance after this Halloween day will say a lot.

They are enjoying a good time together, talking and laughing at a table specially set for them at the crowded place. Eventually, Soo Ah appears and Saeroyi promptly invites her to hang out with them. Yi Seo rolls her eyes in an (almost) discreet way and gives an excuse to circle around the pub.

Nobody notices but sometimes Saeroyi's eyes look for her. To check what she's doing, if she's still close, if she's not getting in any trouble... He doesn't even know why. But Yi Seo is a professional and tonight is mostly about work, so he only catches her talking to a lot of people, giving orders to some employees, greeting a few known faces.

Until her name is called. Loud.

It can be heard over the music and the chatting voices, but it only attracts attention for a couple of seconds before the people who turned their heads to see go back to their own conversations.

Except for Saeroyi.

He keeps looking the situation unfold.

Yi Seo has her back turned to him so he can't tell her reaction, but she starts walking to the smiley tall blonde guy who called her. He expects her to take the smile away from his face with some rude words; he has seen her do it before. But the man said her name, so he probably knows her and Saeroyi doesn't like the idea.

And he hates it even more when Yi Seo hugs the guy.

She says some things to him that he can't hear and hugs him. Warmly. His hands are on her waist. Saeroyi's hands have never been on her waist; he always hugs her on her shoulders. Actually, he hasn't hugged her in a while, not to give her false hope. Now this guy is. Hugging her. Right there. He doesn't know why, but for the first time Soo Ah in front of him giving him all her attention isn't as flattering as it used to be. He misses someone else's attention right now.

It's weird. Something must be wrong with him. But he can't stop. He tries his best to focus on the talk about whatever he's having with Soo Ah, but his eyes keep wandering. Yi Seo is now chatting happily with the guy. Her bright smile turned to him. And Saeroyi can tell he's mesmerized by it, because who wouldn't? He introduces her to a couple next to him and they just talk for a while.

After what feels like ages, Seung Kwon interrupts to ask Saeroyi if he's seen Yi Seo. He promptly points to where she is, not realizing the puzzled look he receives from Soo Ah for that.

Seung Kwon, clueless as ever, laughs. "She's got a date? Yeah, good for her. And for the employees; they were going crazy with her bossing around."

He leaves, but now Saeroyi is bothered because the thing happening in front of his eyes became a formed concept: a date. Is she on a date? Did they plan to meet here? But she came with them...

It doesn't matter who you come with, but who you leave with, he heard once.

Shit.

Why is this bothering him so much? Why can't he focus on Soo Ah, the girl he likes? He doesn't like Jo Yi Seo. That's settled. But why... why does the guy's hand on her back bring him so much annoyance? And why does the fact that Yi Seo doesn't seem bothered by it makes him want to punch the guy even more? Saeroyi catches himself having the most selfish thought of the night: he wants her to come back to their table and talk to them. To him.

That's a trace he came to get used to after meeting her: being selfish. And he hates himself for it. He has no business being selfish towards her when he has nothing to offer. But still he is. Tries not to demonstrate most of the time, but he is. He needs her too much not to be.